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Running from the shotgun is baaaad

Timbuff10

Member
Ok, this is one thing I don't understand and it seemed to never work all season!

Running from the shotgun is about the most stupid thing you can do and we seem to run from the shotgun exclusively and built our entire offense around it!

Nearly all of our runs today came from the shotgun and while we were leading too. The object of the game is to move the ball forward. The farther back you take the ball, you just have to work that much harder to get the ball forward. The running back gets no momentum going forward before he gets the ball. You may as well just snap the ball right to the RB if you are going to do any sort of run from the gun.

The other thing that bugs me about the shotgun is, and this never fails, when we are in a 3rd and 14ish situation, we fake a handoff from the gun like we are going to run it after the previous two downs lost us 3-4 yards on runs from the shotgun.

I don't know how Darrel Scott managed to get any runs this year as the only play I have ever really seen him run on was the shotgun draw which always gets him the ball with a DT in his face right as the gets the ball.

We ran from the I a few times tonight and there wasn't nearly the penetration given up by our line that happens on every run from the gun. I don't by the whole, "our Oline sucks so we have to run from the shotgun" thing. Sumler had some big runs from the I and powered right on through. That is how you win games!

Just get rid of the shotgun unless it is an obvious passing down and you better be passing on about 90% of those plays.

And can anyone else figure out the back to back QB sneaks there in the second half? After the first one, I thought he would throw that play in the trash, but it came back the very next play with the same result.
 
And can anyone else figure out the back to back QB sneaks there in the second half? After the first one, I thought he would throw that play in the trash, but it came back the very next play with the same result.

That was really bad play calling to try and close out the game. I dont understand those calls at all. Maybe if Hansen was at QB but not hawkins. With that said, I thought the coaches did a great job today, other than the 2 QB draws and not calling a time out with 21 seconds left in the half. You can't give them a chance to throw a hail mary.
 
That was really bad play calling to try and close out the game. I dont understand those calls at all. Maybe if Hansen was at QB but not hawkins. With that said, I thought the coaches did a great job today, other than the 2 QB draws and not calling a time out with 21 seconds left in the half. You can't give them a chance to throw a hail mary.

The QB draw doesn't make sense when we're trying to run out the clock. Fuskers are looking for the run at that point, so the line isn't going to be getting too far down field. The play would have made more sense when we were down and they were coming all out off the edges. Oh well.
 
Yeah, I liked the plays that were called most of the day. I think we threw the football down the field more today than we have all season!

I just wish every run from the shotgun would have come from a power/I formation and all those QB sneaks would have been draws or some sort of run from a running back. Hansen can pull it off sometimes but I think I have only seen Hawkins get a descent amount of yards off of that play once this season.

So can anyone sneak into Dal Ward and burn the Shotgun-Run section out of the playbook in the offseason?
 
The play they ran to the outside when Sumler scored his first touchdown had pretty good success, I'm surprised they didn't go back to that more. I think they ran it 3-4 times and got at least 8 yards each time.
 
Why in the world do we use play action at the end of the game? If its a timing thing, than that shows me right there that we dont have a single pass play where we dont need to play fake?
 
Why in the world do we use play action at the end of the game? If its a timing thing, than that shows me right there that we dont have a single pass play where we dont need to play fake?

That was the thing that pissed me off the most yesterday. 3rd and 14 and we fake the run from the shotgun. Yeah, that fooled everyone! Why bother? All it does is waste time and prevent the RB from getting to his blocking correctly as he has to go fake like he is going to run the ball.

If we get in the shotgun next year, it better be on obvious passing downs!
 
It seems to me that the pros only go gun on passing downs but, then, I don't pay that much attention. But I do know that the Broncos line up with the qb under center quite often.
 
its called having an Oline. I have grown to hate running out of the shotgun, but I will forgive them this season... every other team has success running out of the shotgun, even teams with QB's no more mobile than cody (kansas)... because their Oline BLOCKS!

However, I would not mind a return to pro style I formation dominance... hell ya!
 
its called having an Oline. I have grown to hate running out of the shotgun, but I will forgive them this season... every other team has success running out of the shotgun, even teams with QB's no more mobile than cody (kansas)... because their Oline BLOCKS!

However, I would not mind a return to pro style I formation dominance... hell ya!


No, that is crap... Our Oline has struggled this year more than any that I have seen at CU considering all the injuries. The thing is though, and I saw this yesterday specifically and throughout the season as a whole, when we run and the QB is under center our running game is much better. Running from the gun gives the runner no momentum going forward and takes the ball farther bacwards for a longer amount of time than if you just pound it. If you just hand it off from the I the runner is where he wants to be in half the time.

The only time running from the shotgun is good is when the D is 100% sure you are going to pass and all the DBs turn their back and sell out to coverage. Then all you have to do is beat 4-5 guys up front and you can sneak a first down once or maybe twice a game like that.
 
The shot gun might work better with more misdirection. C-Hawk's intentions are rarely disguised. His hand offs look like hand offs, and he telegraphs his throws by staring down the receiver. A few play action fakes, may be pumped ball or a disguised keeper would generate a few more yards. Now that Cody knows the play book and the offense, he might consider spending the off season taking some acting classes, or mentoring a slight-of-hand magician.

The bid of no-confidence with Hansen and Ballinger down the stretch tells me the QB position is still Cody's to lose. It should be an interesting camp.
 
Go watch Florida today and see what an experienced team with a solid o-line can do running out of the shotgun.

Horrible idea for the Buffs this year, but it's just as effective when properly run as running out of the I.
 
Running from the shotgun is about the most stupid thing you can do and we seem to run from the shotgun exclusively and built our entire offense around it!

.


Worked fine for Oregon today..


Our version of the spread is a work in progress... We need some better skill players to make it work.
 
It seems to me that the pros only go gun on passing downs but, then, I don't pay that much attention. But I do know that the Broncos line up with the qb under center quite often.

That's true, but the big difference is that the college teams have QB's who run the ball frequently. But that also only works when you have a mobile, running QB like Reesing, Robinson, etc. :huh:
 
That's true, but the big difference is that the college teams have QB's who run the ball frequently. But that also only works when you have a mobile, running QB like Reesing, Robinson, etc. :huh:

Oklahoma doesn't have a mobile QB and runs the ball out of shotgun.
There are a couple things I disagree with on this thread, and I hate us running out the of shotgun.
The "play-action on third and 14" drove me crazy earlier this year until I talked to a few people and the fake is for the QBs footwork and timing. It is not really a fake.
Secondly, the back-to-back QB draws were both there, just poorly executed. I didn't mind the calls.
 
Ok then, running from the shotgun can work but it DOES NOT WORK FOR CU. It may be a talent thing, maybe an experience thing, or maybe our player's styles just don't mesh mesh with running from the gun. Probably, it is a little of all three but the thing is, it is painfully obvious that CU does much better in runs when the QB is under center and a fullback is leading the way.

Maybe in the next year or two we can implement the shotgun when the big kid from Los Alamitos in SoCal is here and proves to be a big time college QB. We have a stable full of running backs with more potential than I can ever really remember being at CU. We gotta find a way to feature those guys instead of Cody's arm.
 
Ok then, running from the shotgun can work but it DOES NOT WORK FOR CU. It may be a talent thing, maybe an experience thing, or maybe our player's styles just don't mesh mesh with running from the gun. Probably, it is a little of all three but the thing is, it is painfully obvious that CU does much better in runs when the QB is under center and a fullback is leading the way.

Maybe in the next year or two we can implement the shotgun when the big kid from Los Alamitos in SoCal is here and proves to be a big time college QB. We have a stable full of running backs with more potential than I can ever really remember being at CU. We gotta find a way to feature those guys instead of Cody's arm.

That's more where I am at. If you looked at our personnel, 2-3 RBs, 2-3 TEs, run-blocking OL (Miller), possession WRs, you would almost say run the wishbone.
I couldn't believe it when I heard we were going to run almost every play from the gun. However, I think it was something we had to do with Cody, I think they recognized with Cody under center he might never get a pass of. The gun allowed Cody to use his strength and read Ds. Unfortunately, with a porous OL, that plan went out the window and we wound up with no offensive identity.
 
That's more where I am at. If you looked at our personnel, 2-3 RBs, 2-3 TEs, run-blocking OL (Miller), possession WRs, you would almost say run the wishbone.
I couldn't believe it when I heard we were going to run almost every play from the gun. However, I think it was something we had to do with Cody, I think they recognized with Cody under center he might never get a pass of. The gun allowed Cody to use his strength and read Ds. Unfortunately, with a porous OL, that plan went out the window and we wound up with no offensive identity.


So we will change our offense to match the strength of Cody, but we will not change or offense to match the strength of the overall team?

I guess going back to the beginning of the season, we didn't know what we had with any of our freshmen so without being able to count on any of them and knowing we had Cody with his limitations, I suppose the gun wasn't too bad of an idea but sticking with it when Cody struggled and our backs proved to be pretty good, a change would have been great around the Kansas game.
 
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